DEA Blows Off Self-Imposed Marijuana Rescheduling Deadline

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was supposed to make a decision on whether to reschedule marijuana within the first half of 2016. But they are nowhere to be found during their self-imposed deadline.

A letter from the DEA in April read that it “hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016,” according to The Denver Post. Last week a Denver Post representative was told by a DEA spokesperson that an update from the administration’s status on rescheduling was not available.

Once the DEA does present a decision, months of deliberations, reviews, and litigation could still take place.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand sent a letter to the DEA at the end of June asking, “that you [the DEA] take immediate action to remove ‘cannabis’ and ‘tetrahydrocannabinols’ from Schedule I.”

Rescheduling marijuana would also require a rescheduling of Marinol and other FDA-approved synthetic THC products.

Objecting pharmaceutical companies composed a letter saying, “By proposing that natural generic equivalents be rescheduled to Schedule III, the DEA acknowledged that this substance has a medical use, regardless of whether it is synthetically made or natural.”